For my first true post about Urbana, I figured it would be helpful if I told you a little bit about my daily schedule at the conference and what each day was like! So here is a day in the life:
6:45 am : Wake up and prepare to consume a delicious free hot breakfast from the hotel!
8:45-10:15 am: Bible Study!
11:00-12:30: Morning session with all 16,000 of us! (Usually we would have two speakers and some worship during this time)
Lunch break! (More on this later)
2:00-4:30 : We could attend two hour long seminars of our choice during this time!
Dinner break! (They fed us dinner in the convention center which was very nice)
7:30-9:30 Evening Session! (Similar to Morning Session)
10:30-12:30am : Late night roomie talks and reflection
Repeat. It was definitely an unsustainable sleep pattern, but super worth it.
I really enjoyed the city of St. Louis as well! It was very cloudy, rainy, and windy a majority of the time, but the local people were so friendly and kind. My friends and I happened to stumble upon an amazing sandwich shop inside a St. Louis skyscraper on December 30th, and I was honestly blown away by their generosity. Granted it's just a small sandwich shop where you order your food, sit down, and wait for them to call your name. But, when I was ordering my sandwich one of the managers told me that he would love my feedback because they are always trying to make their food more fresh and delicious! Once we were all eating our food, the manager came over to all of us to ask how everything was tasting, and I think we all wanted to eat at this place again tomorrow. So we did.
As we were eating our sandwiches and wraps on the 31st, one of the employees came over to our table and gave us a huge box of their cookies (I'm talking like a dozen!) and told us they were on the house. What?! Consequently, we are thanking her and hugging her, and also shaking hands with one of the men who works behind the counter, Gary. It was so kind, and granted we are a bit of a loud bunch. I wouldn't be surprised if the response to a bunch of college kids was mixed in this sandwich shop right by a bank. But, it gets better. As we are lingering in the shop and they are preparing to close at 3pm, Gary asks us what's the best view of St. Louis we have seen so far. We answer honestly: we haven't really had time to see much of St. Louis (see schedule above for proof of this). He then offers to take us to the top of the skyscraper (it's 42 floors!) because the view at the top is so stunning. And at this point we cannot say yes fast enough! So Gary takes us up to the top and is pointing out landmarks to us and is telling us more about the building. We all are on cloud 10 at this point, higher than cloud nine. And as we are all finally ready to leave, saying our final "thank you"s to Gary he tells us to "Thank God". Wow. It was definitely one of those moments that leaves you in speechless awe. Finding that sandwich shop and experiencing such love, hospitality, and kindness is something I will treasure in my heart. So here's to Gary, St. Louis, and sandwiches! Thanks be to God.
No comments:
Post a Comment